From Patras to Diakofto

Tuesday 13th to Thursday 15th April
From Patras to Diakofto
Not much to write about from these 2 days .
Since leaving Patras we have had a pretty tedious time bicycling towards Korinth. We were full of enthusiasm as we are heading West-East along the Korinthion Gulf and it is a very flat part of the world.
There is a very smart new motorway which we had hoped would take all the heavy traffic off the old national road, but the first 25 miles were a nightmare as these enormous trucks with equally long trailers attached thundered past all the time. At times there is not much verge and if you are the one in front you wait for a scrunch and bang from behind, and if you are at the back you wait for the screech of brakes and to feel yourself flying into the concrete wall. It is very tiring as you have to concentrate rather hard all the time and it is also very noisy. Quite apart from that you have no time to look at the glorious coastline alongside. We stopped at the first place we could find in the quiet bay of Psathopyrgos where the only person we could find to help us only spoke Italian. Thanks again to North Foreland Lodge we were able to communicate! We had a lovely evening; there is a typical bay, lots of tavernas and twinkly lights, boats and bored locals sitting around playing backgammon.
The way back to the village for supper was a stroll along the beach.
Boat park!

The hotel was run by a very nice English girl (our age!) who told us that the Greeks don’t like to pay the first toll from Patras so they do this stretch for free instead on the new toll road. Once past Egio, things would improve. It did for a short while, but probably only because it was lunchtime. We turned off onto beach roads at every opportunity but they mostly end at the beach, in an annoying fashion instead of heading along the seaside.

Outside the aptly named Cafe Paradise!
On the quieter bits it is very attractive but definitely ‘second home’ area with very smart villas all closed up interspersed with orange and olive groves. The frogs make the most fantastic chorus and the skops owls have just started calling at night, which is most evocative of our honeymoon on Syros.
On Wednesday we set off optimistically as in about ten miles things should improve (traffic wise) but it didn’t and to make matters worse we ran out of potential accommodation to the point that we went into places, looked at what they had to offer and declined it.

The longest tails and shortest legs ever worn by a dog!
But once again something happened, a seriously muscle bound cyclist appeared from a cottage and we flagged him down and asked – hotel please! He just said follow me, which I did and Vivi gasped – just come back and fetch me. Anyway he led us to a hotel which looked closed but miraculously was open and it was very comfortable. They only took cash and as we hadn’t passed an ATM for a while that meant supper was on a serious budget, but having explained the situation to the beach bar we went back to they rustled us up pork and lamb chops to die for and everything was just great!
Thursday 15th April
Two good things have happened overnight, firstly Dick is coming to spend the weekend with us (added bonus- he speaks Greek !) and to visit Kalavryta and secondly Rosie has been told by the RSC to take a week off so is flying to Corfu where we will meet her next Friday. It is extraordinary to feel so empowered as to be able to say – yes, Corfu no problem. If an Australian cousin flew into Birmingham and said come and see me, 9 months ago we would have said ‘er maybe – ‘can’t you come here’!
Today we only had about 5 miles to do to the village of Diakofto where the ‘rack rail train’ takes you up the gorge to Kalavryta and we were determined to do this off the main road not on it which would a) be safer b) quieter and c) possibly shorter. 12 miles on and after some fascinating sights

A rose with a jasmine mixed into it, smells delicious!

This chap had a serious problem getting his pots across the railway line all in one piece.

Ah...Bottlebrush
we finally arrived but it had been worth it, we had quiet & safe (2 out of 3) and had had a lovely ride. Not that lovely as Vivi’s bike sounds terminally ill and turning it upside-down and much ooing and ahhing from locals with strimmers, chainsaws and assorted spanners has not made a stitch of difference. The final diagnosis is that a spoke broke yesterday when she fell into a drain and since we have no idea how to repair this we’ll have to go back to Harry in Patras and have it fixed.
In Diakofto we cycled from one end to the other and couldn’t find a place suitable for both us and Dick but then mercifully noticed that a perfectly horrid looking hotel facade disguised a garden full of luxury self catering apartments which turned out to be (almost) perfect, so we’ve booked ourselves in for 4 nights. All these decisions having been made in a matter of minutes the only thing left to do was spend the afternoon on the beach and have a swim,

Just to show how clean the water is, and

for ARTS sake!
fishermen went in and out and the waves lapped it was lovely.

At 5 o clock an Armada of tiny fishing boats disappeared over the horizon in search of who knows what.

Tomorrow we take a bus to Korinth as I am determined to see the canal, it won’t be like Murray and Amanda’s trip through the Panama canal but that one can wait for another adventure!

The evening didn't end too well. We bought a huge delicious steak and a bottle of red with a label we recognized to go with it. It was only when we opened it that we realized why we recognized it, it was the same sweet liquor wine we had bought the last time we thought we'd have an expensive bottle of wine. Ah well...